Youth Symphonic Orchestras: learning projects on professional stages

Youth Orchestras offer young musicians a learning experience, as they have the opportunity to work with teachers of international prestige, out of a strictly traditional academic environment.

They are also a chance to gain experience in a top orchestra, work with professional musicians or take part in meetings and concerts usually restricted to renowned artists.

JONDE, the Spanish National Youth orchestra (http://jonde.mcu.es/), belongs to the National Institute for Scenic and Musical Arts, which is part of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. It was founded in 1983 with the aim to give young people aged 18 to 23 the opportunity to learn and share their musical knowledge in a pre-professional environment, similar to that from orchestras formed by classical music professionals.
Candidates to join JONDE must be Spanish nationals or must live in Spain and pass an audition. There are two exams each year, in spring and in autumn, depending on the instrument.
Besides, candidates must have a Medium Graduate in Music.
Besides the fact that the information about auditions or admission exams is widely advertised, the JONDE website shows all the conditions and the list of topics demanded from future members. Exams consist of performing a series of classical pieces of music detailed on the call instructions, as well as reading a piece of music at first sight.
Admitted candidates stay at JONDE for a year, but can renew this period until a maximum of three years.

Thus, other youth orchestras were created under local or regional public administrations.

For further information, check the AEJO-Spanish Association of Youth orchestras website (link: http://www.aejo.org/index.asp ). AEJO was created in 2004 in order to coordinate and share the experiences of these orchestras.

All these groups work in a similar way: young graduate musicians, after passing a series of admission exams, play and learn with professionals and get closer to the pre-professional world.
These are some examples of youth orchestras that belong to regional governments:

On a European level, the EFNYO, European Federation of National Youth orchestras (web: http://www.efnyo.org/index.php?page=welcome) gathers national and international members and tries to develop educational and cultural cooperation among them.

Exchange programmes for members of European youth orchestras:

MusXchange was developed in 2009 and enables members of youth orchestras that participate in the EFNYO to share their experiences with participants from other countries for a short period of time -one week to one and a half months. All the information about MusXchange is available on the following website: http://www.efnyo.org/index.php?page=exchange